Whose streets? Negotiations over public space through the figure of waste in Limbo and Drifting
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21788586 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bram Overbeeke (Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-17 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Chinese Cinemas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1750-8061 • E-ISSN: 1750-807X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17508061.2025.2513134 |
| OpenAlex | W4410967249 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
Hong Kong’s dense streets feature prominently in global genres such as cyberpunk and neo-noir, which often reproduce the vertical dichotomy of trashy crime-filled city streets versus techno-futurist skyscrapers. In Hong Kong cinema itself, waste is often rendered invisible but also springs up in genres such as crime and social issue films to interrogate questions of excess and class relations in public space. The films Limbo (2021) and Drifting (2021) represent recent developments in these genres, responding to a wider sense of anxiety over the legibility and accessibility of the city which demands documentation in the face of redevelopment and disappearance. Limbo tells the story of a serial killer who leaves chopped-off hands as traces – ‘excess’ body parts that emphasize an association between waste, violence, and bare life. Drifting is based on the real story of a group of street sleepers whose belongings were trashed in 2012, and it questions how people can be so easily excluded from public space and their closest possessions categorized as refuse. In these post-2019 films, the visually intruding figure of trash comes to be imbued with allegorical meanings related to the negotiation over public space and what or who is wanted there, or ‘refused’
Advertising · Architectural engineering · Art · Business · Media studies · Negotiation · Political science · Public space · Sociology · Visual arts · Computer Science · Engineering · Law · Public Spaces through Art · South African History and Culture · Urban Planning and Governance
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |